The remainder of the night was pleasant, and she was camped out on the captain's bed, not really caring if she was welcome there or not, she had taken it and when he found her there, he had glared at her in an attempt to make her leave. She had simply looked back at him with her best deadpan stare and he had stalked back out, finding somewhere else to sleep for the evening.
It didn't matter what he was, she was the Princess of a greater kingdom, and that meant she outranked him. He didn't like it, but then, he didn't have to like it, it didn't change the facts.
Looking over the maps of the new city and surrounding areas, she hummed faintly to herself and chewed on a biscuit he had hidden in his drawer. The man was terrible at hiding things and it was a fragrant thing, with some spice or other she had never tasted and before she knew it, she had devoured half the little tin with her legs swinging in the air, on her stomach.
She knew it would annoy him, but she didn't care all that much, and she had left the tin on the desk.
The door opened as she crunched into another biscuit and she looked around towards the door, expecting to see the man go purple in the face when he found his biscuit tin empty. But rather, she found Lucas, and she smiled faintly, pushing herself up into a sitting position.
"He's going to kill you," he said, and she shrugged, swallowing the chunk.
"He can try," she countered.
The mage laughed, approaching her with the case. "Is there much pain?" He looked away as she tugged down her pants to show him the area. It was terribly bruised, but the streaks had faded into nothing, but a hint and he seemed relieved.
"If you were eating more, you would have healed this days ago," he scolded, eyeing the biscuits.
"Offering yourself up?" she asked and grinned when he looked surprised. "I eat humans Lucas. No pain really, but I wouldn't say no to more of that sleep stuff you gave me."
He seemed shaken by that, but shook it off and prepared the injection, sliding it into her arm and pressing down.
"You're such a baby," he said.
She laughed, already feeling the pleasant buzz of the sleep medication. "Please, if you knew half of the things, I've been through this past few years you would take more pity on me. Why is it you and the captain don't fear me?"
"Is that what your magic is trying to do? I can feel it buzzing on your skin. I assume because the captain, crew, and I have seen scarier things than a forty-kilo girl with an attitude problem running around in her underwear," he said.
She was indignant, glaring up at him.
"I am not a girl, I do not have an attitude problem, and I am an assassin," she snapped, making him laugh at her.
"You're what? Twenty? You're a girl."
"I'm nine hundred at least," she snapped.
He lifted his brows slightly and then shrugged but she was smug at his seeming surprise at her age. She was still very young compared to most of the Fae, but compared to the humans...
"Still, you're a tiny thing," he said, helping her shove the maps out of the way so she could get comfortable on the bed.
"Stop picking on me. I'll be fine once I can figure out how to get back to eating you lot," she grumbled and flopped down onto her stomach.
"Yes dear," he said condescendingly.
"And I'm going to eat your stupid, sarcastic face first."
"I'm sure you will," he patted her hair gently, and she sighed, hating him so very much.
Drifting off to sleep, she heard the door closing as he left her alone once more.
***
Something woke her several hours later, and she stirred, groggy and irritable that something had woken her. Looking up, she found her hands had been bound above her head and when she looked down, a man had frozen in the process of undoing her pants, his pale eyes on hers.
"Can I help you with something?" she growled, not in the best of moods to start with, and then him trying to get a bit of action was making it worse.
"Just shut up and lie still," he said, and she watched him as he pulled the ties free and tugging her pants down, though they were tight and they weren't getting far.
"You have three seconds to leave before I rip your head off…"
He slapped her, and that was the tipping point.
Her jaw ached, and she looked back at him, a low and dangerous growl starting in her throat.
Jerking her arms down, she snapped the rope as easy as a string and sat up, her fingers finding his throat and she drew him closer, the man whimpering, but unable to scream with her grip on him.
"Don't die too fast…" she whispered and dragged him off the bed.
Her teeth found his throat, and she moaned as the taste of him hit her like a punch from Dirdos.
Clutching him to her, she dragged him up off the floor and dug harder, gnawing on him and desperate for more blood.
He struggled valiantly, but she wasn't about to let go and she gorged herself on him until he stopped moving and then she let go, blood covering her face and chest, but she didn't care.
Looking down at him, she smiled at his terrified, barely conscious face before she reached down and ripped open his shirt from navel to neck.
With one hand reaching for his hair, she jerked his head up and his scream was delicious as she made him watch her biting into his abdomen and rip the flesh away, her eyes sliding shut as she chewed the flesh and swallowed, bit and chewed, swallowed and bit again, finally moving up to the less tender flesh and glaring down at his sternum. That was always an annoyance for her.
He died within a minute and she let him go, his soul evading her, but his flesh was hot and fresh.
His scream must have been loud enough for others to hear, as the door burst open and she looked up curiously, kneeling over his corpse with fingers on his sternum and trying to pry it apart from the ribs. She had most of them free when she was interrupted, the last few making life difficult for her.
Feeling amazing for the first time in weeks, she blinked at the horrified and disgusted look of the men at what she was doing.
"What?" she asked, the pop of the cartilage coming free making them all jump, but she looked down, wishing they would have let her have one of her knives. It was easier when she had a knife.
Moving her fingers down to the final join, she curled her fingers around it then froze at the audible click of the bolt snapping into place right next to her ear.
Lifting her hands off the corpse, she held them up in the signal for surrender and she looked up to find the crossbow aimed right for her head, Malik attached to the other end of it.
"He attacked me first," she said, making the man angrier, and she watched his finger twitch near the base of the thing. Was that how it was shot?
"Get against the wall," he ordered.
She did so without complaint, though she was still hungry.
Turning around on her knees, she placed her hands on the wall with her back to them, inching closer until she was almost nose to nose with it and then her forehead thunked against it as he pushed her head closer.
"Ow…" she muttered, her complaint ignored, but when she heard them dragging the man away, she tried to turn, his fingers curling in her hair to hold her still. "I was eating that!"
"Shut up," Malik snarled.
She sighed, hating the loss of a meal when she was so hungry.
Falling silent, she examined the woodgrain right in front of her face and then jerked at the clinking of metal, whimpering softly as the shackle was clamped around her wrist and the sizzling began. They weren't being as nice this time and had removed the padding.
Jerking her arms down and behind her, she remained still as one of the men closed the shackle on her other wrist and she was dragged to her feet.
"You're going to stay in the cell for the rest of the trip and then you can go back to Ayathian, that's where the monsters belong," the captain snarled.
His eyes dragged down her blood covered frame and paused at her navel where her pants had been partially tugged down her hips.
They took her back down to the cell and left her a bucket of water to clean up in, something she took full advantage of the instant she was unshackled. Stripping out of her shirt and doing up her pants, she dunked the shirt in the water a few times and used it to wash her face, neck, chest, and arms before she washed it out again, then wrung it out. Hanging it on the edge of the bed, she dropped onto the hard bed and leant back against the wall to assess how she felt.
She felt alive for the first time in ages, her body singing with the energy, and when she poked at the wound on her leg, she found it to have no pain at all, though she wasn't sure if that was because of the painkillers or her own body after devouring the man.